Faculty of Social Work & Social Care

Faculty Mission:

Provide education, training and professional development for the Buckinghamshire Health & Social Care workforce. Our teams are dedicated to creating training programmes that value innovative, strength-based methodologies.


Faculty Vision:

  • Promote learning, development and career progression.
  • Develop an open and transparent framework of training.
  • Promoting the strength of our citizens in all our interventions.
  • Working together across the Health and Social Care sector, united by our social values.


Autism Awareness Week 2023

27 March - 2 April


For additional information: World Autism Acceptance Week 2023

Paula McGowan: The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training Promotion

Oliver's story and explaining why The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is happening across health and care.

Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism - Champions

Senior leaders from across health and care have voiced their support for The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism, the first part of which was launched in November 2022. The full selection of videos can be found on a YouTube playlist, which you can view by clicking here.

Social Work and Social Care represented at the 2023 Bucks Skills Show

March 8 & 9, Stoke Mandeville Stadium

Nursing Associates Apprenticeship Programme for Social Care Providers across Buckinghamshire

(Click each tab for more info)

What is the programme?

The Nursing Associate (NA) is a new role that is regulated in England by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the body responsible for regulating the nursing and midwifery professions. Nursing Associates will have a level 5 Foundation degree. The Nursing Associate Apprenticeship Programme allows you to develop your staff to become Nursing Associates (or recruit externally if you prefer).


All aspects of learning are undertaken during paid working hours: All apprentices are required to undertake 20% ‘off the job’ learning. For a Nursing Associate Apprentice (NAA) this is generally achieved with one day a week at the university. Additionally, NAAs are required to undertake external placements where they receive direct supervision and have protected learning time in order to develop the competencies required for the role. This means that an NAA on a full-time contract will spend approximately 40% of their working hours not in your workplace. NAAs generally need to be employed for a minimum of 30 hours per week however this may vary between universities. 


Supervision and support during placements: Nursing Associate Apprentices need to be supervised and supported in the workplace in the same way as pre-registration nurse students are supervised and supported. This can be done by a suitably qualified Practice Supervisor but must also have overall support from a Practice Assessor. A practice learning document is supplied by the university which will outline the expectations during the 2 years. It is the role of the Practice Supervisor, working with the Apprentice to set clinical-setting-specific learning goals and assess the apprentices’ competency progression against these goals.  An educational audit of the workplace will be completed by the university prior to accepting Apprentices onto the programme to ensure your organisation has the capacity to provide this support. 


A University Academic Assessor will support your NAA, the Practice Supervisor and Practice Assessor to ensure the planned learning is taking place. Tri-partite reviews will be held between the NAA, the university and you to monitor progress.


Supporting Placements for other Nursing Associates Apprentices: Within the Thames Valley NA partnership, Employers take responsibility for organising external placements for their NAAs with other members of the partnership.  This may result in your organisation hosting TNAs from other employers whilst your NAA is on placement elsewhere. Although this may provide you with some staff support in their absence, they are unlikely to already have experience of your setting and they must not be included in the workplace template for staffing levels.  These Nursing Associate Apprentices will need the same supervision and support described above. 

The Apprenticeship Course

The training costs are funded via the apprenticeship levy and employers can currently receive a support package of £8,000 per Apprentice from HEE or £15,800 for TNAs spending over 50% of their time supporting people with learning disabilities and/or autism.


Entry requirements to train as a Nursing Associate:

(Note: Entry requirements may vary, please check with your University for their specific entry requirements)

1. Level 2 Maths and English qualifications (Functional Skills, GCSE a-c or equivalent)

2. Relevant work experience may be required

3. Demonstration and understanding of the appropriate values and attitudes required of a Nursing Associate

4. Have UK or EU passport or right to work in the UK

5. Evidence of satisfactory DBS and satisfactory completion of occupational health checks by employer (up to date)

6. Understanding of the Nursing Associate role and the Nursing Associate Apprenticeship programme

7. They must have the ability/potential to undertake foundation degree level learning, including practical ability to prioritise learning alongside work and non-work commitments over the 2 years of the apprenticeship 


Further details:

- The course leads to a Level 5 Foundation Degree.

- Runs for 2 years plus 3 months (approx.) for NMC registration and apprenticeship End Point Assessment.

- Includes one day a week plus 675 hours of placements away from the workplace in different settings to meet NMC requirement of gaining experience covering adult, mental health, learning disability and children’s services.

- Placements are usually on a block release model over several weeks at a time.


Benefits of having NAs on the team:

- Increasing capacity of your service to deal with service users’ clinical needs

- They can undertake some tasks currently carried out by a Registered Nurse, freeing up time for the RN to care for your more complex service users

- Potential increase in hospital discharges to your service

- Cost-effective nursing team, working together to maximize skills

- Promoting career progression from care staff towards nursing supports staff retention, as well as attracting good quality staff


Decision Making Checklist

Things to consider when deciding whether to support a staff member to join the Nursing Associate Apprenticeship Training:


1. Does your organisation want to, and have you the capacity to incorporate the new Nursing Associate role into your nursing team in two years’ time?  A CQC statement about this role can be found here

 

2. Do you have a staff member that you feel would be a suitable Nursing Associate after completing the apprenticeship?  If not do you want to recruit someone to support on this apprenticeship?


3. Does the staff member you have in mind meet the entry criteria? Do they have the right experience and values?  You should only support staff you feel will succeed with the training and make excellent Nursing Associates once qualified.


4. Does your organisation have the capacity to support your staff member on the Nursing Associate Apprenticeship programme, remembering that:

   a. You will need to employ them on a full-time basis (or at least 30hrs – check minimum working hours required with your chosen university).

   b. They will attend the university and attend external placements for an average of 40% of their paid working hours (based on 37.5 hours a week employment).

   c. Your Registered Nurse is required to supervise and support your Nursing Associate Apprentice and any other Nursing Associate Apprentices for whom you are providing a placement for.

You can find additional information from Skills for Care about this role here 


What is the salary during training and once registered?

The suggestion would be to keep the senior care worker on their current salary whilst they are in training. You will lose some of their time in learning, but you’ll be gaining their increased skillset. 

In the NHS training nursing associates are generally paid at Band 3 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scales. 

Once registered and working in the role, Nursing Associates in the NHS are paid at Band 4 of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scales.

Contacts and Useful Links:

If you think you would like to put a staff member forward for the programme, or want to know more please contact: 

Jason Greasley - Jason.greasley1@nhs.net 


University Contacts:


o Buckinghamshire New University, Joanne Bartlett: Joanne.Bartlett@Bucks.ac.uk 


HEE Contacts:


o Claire Wardle – Programme Lead (Nurse Expansion) South East Region, Claire.Wardle@hee.nhs.uk  


Useful Links:


Skills for Care – Nursing Associates

-Films about the nursing associate role

-Training and standards of proficiency 

-Community of practice 


Nursing and Midwifery Council – Nursing Associates

-What is a Nursing Associate?

-How do we regulate the nursing associate profession? 

-Standards for nursing associates 

-Information for employers 

-Nursing associate case studies 


Health Education England – Nursing Associates Case Studies

-Training Nursing Associates 

-Social Care Deep Dive – Evaluation of the Introduction of Nursing Associates (pdf)



Click here to download information on the Nursing Associate cohort for Autumn 2023

Nursing Associate Expansion Project in Social Care (Southeast) Event

hosted online on 12/10/2023


Keynote speeches and the project evaluation report can be found below.

Evaluation Report by Fani Liapi - Senior Research Fellow, University of Bedfordshire


If you wish to receive the full circulation from the day, with all presentations, please request so here

Career Pathways

Online Flipbook resource

Health and Social Care staff work together to support people in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of settings.

In Buckinghamshire, people tend to be employed by either a Health employer or a Social Care employer and then work together to support people.


This tool is for, among others, people looking to progress to a career in Adult Social Care, those looking to return to work in Adult Social Care and those looking to start a new career in the sector.


The content of this resource focuses on opportunities within Adult Social Care.

For information on careers in healthcare, visit www.healthcareers.nhs.uk

Sara Franchetti

Social Work & Social Care Faculty Lead

Strategic Lead in Practice and Quality Standards for Buckinghamshire Council

Sara is a registered Social Worker and has been for the last 23 years. She started her career working for Bedfordshire County Council as a social worker in the Older Persons team. During her time in Bedfordshire she worked in Community Assessment and Rehabilitation teams. She later progressed to a Senior Practitioner in Bedford Hospital where she managed a small team of social workers.


Sara later moved to work for Hertfordshire County Council working in a newly formed Specialist Mental Health team for Older People, giving her the experience and passion to improve the service user journey within a mental health service. She eventually began working for Serco who delivered the frontline services for the council.


In 2019, Sara moved to work for Buckinghamshire Council as a Strategic Lead for Quality and Practice in the Quality Standards and Performance team. Among her other roles Sara also has 15 years’ experience as a Practice Educator which enables her to train and support students that are undertaking their Social Work training, along with being an approved Mental Health Practitioner.


The Assessed & Supported Year in Employment Scheme

The Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) is designed to help newly qualified social workers develop their skills, knowledge and capability, and strengthen their professional confidence. It provides them with access to regular and focused support during their first year of employment in social work. Watch the video below to to see how the ASYE scheme has impacted newly qualified social workers.

Watch Full video Here

Careers Page

Find out more about Buckinghamshire Council Social Work Careers

Buckinghamshire Council SW Careers

Keep up with the latest news from Buckinghamshire Council

Share by: